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Social cognition—the ability to think about the minds and mental states of others—is essential for human beings. In the last decade, a group of regions has been discovered in the human brain that are specifically used for social cognition. A new study in the July/August 2009 issue of the journal Child Development investigates these brain regions for the first time in human children. The study has implications for children with autism.

In the United States, adolescence is a time when many teens become less interested in academics. A new longitudinal study has found that this disengagement is greater for American teens than for Chinese teens.

The study, by psychologists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, appears in the July/August 2009 issue of Child Development, a journal. It may help explain why Chinese children consistently outperform Americans in academic areas such as math.

PHILADELPHIA – Endothelial progenitor cells may play a role in the start and progression of metastatic disease in children with cancer, according to study results published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

What is going on in teenagers' brains as their drive for peer approval begins to eclipse their family affiliations? Brain scans of teens sizing each other up reveal an emotion circuit activating more in girls as they grow older, but not in boys. The study by Daniel Pine, M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of National Institutes of Health, and colleagues, shows how emotion circuitry diverges in the male and female brain during a developmental stage in which girls are at increased risk for developing mood and anxiety disorders.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Prolonged use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) to treat people infected with both HIV and hepatitis B (HBV) helps to better control the hepatitis B infection and could delay or prevent liver complications, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

(PHILADELPHIA) Researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have identified a protein relationship that may be an ideal treatment target for ER+ breast cancer. The study was reported in the July 15 issue of Cancer Research.

DACH1, a cell fate determination factor protein, prevents cancer cell proliferation by repressing the function of estrogen receptorsin breast cancer, the researchers found. However, they also found that as the presence of DACH1 decreases in breast cancer, the presence of estrogen receptors increases, and vice versa.

A survey of staff at Addenbrooke's hospital has shown that those who break the smoke-free policy are generally more addicted than those who respect it. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Public Health also investigated staff's attitude to the smoke-free policy and found that smokers were less likely to believe that the policy would protect people from second hand smoke.

A unique study looking at the difference in cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke) and life expectancy between people of high and low socio-economic status has found that a person's IQ may have a role to play.

A standard calculation used in forecasting potential numbers of deaths during the swine flu pandemic risks misleading healthcare planners by being open to both over- and under-estimation of the true figures, say the authors of new research published today in the British Medical Journal.

Accurate estimates of the severity of the new H1N1 virus, and in particular how many deaths might arise over the course of the pandemic, are central to healthcare planning over the coming months, say experts in a paper published on bmj.com today.

They will also help to influence decisions on whether to implement social distancing measures such as school closures.

Wild birds of several species are dying in large numbers from a paralytic disease with unknown cause near the Baltic Sea. A research team at Stockholm University, Sweden, led by Associate Professor Lennart Balk, has demonstrated strong relationships between this disease, breeding failure, and advanced thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency in eggs, young, and adults.

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